Ardem Patapoutian is a molecular biologist specialising in sensory transduction. His research has led to the identification of novel ion channels and receptors activated by temperature, mechanical force, and increased cell volume. His laboratory has shown that these ion channels play crucial roles in sensing temperature, touch, proprioception, pain, and regulating vascular tone.  

Patapoutian was born in Lebanon in 1967 and attended the American University of Beirut for one year before he immigrated to the United States in 1986 and became a US citizen. He graduated from UCLA in 1990 and received his PhD at Caltech in the lab of Barbara Wold in 1996. After postdoctoral work with Lou Reichardt at UCSF, he joined the faculty of Scripps Research in 2000, where he is currently a professor in the Department of Neuroscience. He also held a position at the Genomics Institute of The Novartis Research Foundation from 2000–2014.  

Patapoutian was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience in 2006 and was named an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2014. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016), a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2017) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020). He is a co-recipient of the 2017 Alden Spencer Award from Columbia (with David Ginty), the 2019 Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research (with David Julius), the 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience (with David Julius), the 2021 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (shared with David Julius), and the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with David Julius).  

More about Ardem Patapoutian and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021

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